TY - JOUR
T1 - Forgetting, preconditioning CS familiarization and taste aversion learning
T2 - An animal experiment with implications for alcoholism treatment
AU - Elkins, Ralph L.
AU - Hobbs, Stephen H.
N1 - Funding Information:
l This work was supported by the Medical Research Service of the Veterans Administration (MRIS No. 2399). The manuscript was drafted while the senior author was a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 1979
Y1 - 1979
N2 - The rapid taste aversion acquisition, which typically occurs in many species when ingestion of a novel flavor precedes gastrointestinal distress, is retarded by preconditioning familiarity with the CS flavor. This CS familiarity effect (CSFE) might contraindicate taste aversion approaches to alcoholism treatment since alcoholics are quite accustomed to the tastes of alcoholic beverages. However, many alcoholics do develop strong nausea-induced alcohol aversions under appropriate conditioning parameters. Additionally, the CSFE is attenuated in rats by repeated conditioning trials including discrimination training. The present animal experiment was conducted to determine if the CSFE could additionally be weakened by process of forgetting, i.e. by preconditioning withdrawal of a familiar flavor analogous to an alcoholic's 'drying out' before psychotherapeutic intervention. Using saccharin as the CS flavor and cyclophosphamide as the conditioning agent, Sprague-Dawley derived rats acquired no aversions when conditioning was attempted immediately after flavor familiarization. However, significant and equivalent saccharin aversions were observed when conditioning was delayed for either 20 or 100 days after familiarization. These findings imply that the efficiency and cost effectiveness of taste aversion approaches to alcoholism treatment might be enhanced by a pretreatment period of abstinence from alcohol ingestion.
AB - The rapid taste aversion acquisition, which typically occurs in many species when ingestion of a novel flavor precedes gastrointestinal distress, is retarded by preconditioning familiarity with the CS flavor. This CS familiarity effect (CSFE) might contraindicate taste aversion approaches to alcoholism treatment since alcoholics are quite accustomed to the tastes of alcoholic beverages. However, many alcoholics do develop strong nausea-induced alcohol aversions under appropriate conditioning parameters. Additionally, the CSFE is attenuated in rats by repeated conditioning trials including discrimination training. The present animal experiment was conducted to determine if the CSFE could additionally be weakened by process of forgetting, i.e. by preconditioning withdrawal of a familiar flavor analogous to an alcoholic's 'drying out' before psychotherapeutic intervention. Using saccharin as the CS flavor and cyclophosphamide as the conditioning agent, Sprague-Dawley derived rats acquired no aversions when conditioning was attempted immediately after flavor familiarization. However, significant and equivalent saccharin aversions were observed when conditioning was delayed for either 20 or 100 days after familiarization. These findings imply that the efficiency and cost effectiveness of taste aversion approaches to alcoholism treatment might be enhanced by a pretreatment period of abstinence from alcohol ingestion.
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U2 - 10.1016/0005-7967(79)90100-1
DO - 10.1016/0005-7967(79)90100-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 575038
AN - SCOPUS:0018577987
SN - 0005-7967
VL - 17
SP - 567
EP - 573
JO - Behavioral Assessment
JF - Behavioral Assessment
IS - 6
ER -